The invention relates to a device for forming sleeve-like foil envelopes from a continuous flat strip of a sleeve-like foil material, comprising supply means for supplying the continuous flat strip of sleeve-like foil material, cutting means for making a cut in this strip of sleeve-like foil material over the full width thereof so as to obtain the individual sleeve-like foil envelopes, as well as discharge means for discharging the individual sleeve-like foil envelopes from the device.
Such a device is for example disclosed in European patent publication No. 0 109 105. With said device individual sleeve-like foil envelopes are realized in one cutting motion, which individual, flat, sleeve-like foil envelopes must subsequently be opened and be placed around an object, such as a bottle or other container, with a slight oversize. The foil material that is used is made of a so-called “shrink material”, which will shrink under the influence of heat being supplied thereto and conform tightly to the shape of the bottle or other container around which the foil envelope has been placed.
In the aforesaid application, the foil envelope has already been produced in the form of a continuous strip wound on a roll, which needs to be cut to the correct length by means of a device as referred to in the introduction. To that end, the cutting means are driven in dependence on the length, in such a manner that they cut the strip of sleeve-like foil material to the correct length, after which the individual sleeve-like foil envelope thus formed is discharged from the device and opened, to be subsequently placed around the container in a manner which is known per se.
A drawback of the device that is currently known is that it is only suitable for use with thick or stiff foil materials in order to thus realize a high processing speed. When thinner or more flexible foil materials are used, the processing speed must be reduced in order to prevent undesirable jamming of the device.